Living on the Saturday

Here is my stations of the cross contribution:

While you listen to this...



...think about this:























For artier stuff come along to this: dates and times

Social media

I am off fb / twitter for lent to put time into face to face relationships. Not really missing it. The stream of info can be a bit overwhelming at times.
Then there are the times when people share TMI - too much information, that perhaps should be left unsaid or sent in a direct message to the person involved. It's a public forum people!

Life is also less complicated not trying to read into why someone made a statement on fb or responded in a certain way. Like email, there are no verbal cues or voice tone to spot irony, pain, hesitation or uncertainty. And that feeds into our own assumptions about others or easily pushes our own hurt buttons.

Thomas Kemp in Imitation of Christ said:

"As for the words and actions of others, keep yourself from making rash judgement and do not concern yourself with things that are no your business." (p131)

"we could have great peace if we were prepared to abandon our curiosity about other people's words and actions, and things which are no business of ours." (p43)

As an introvert I can easily dip into the virtual world where it is easy to type rather than talk, it is almost talking to myself. But I'm not. If this is really community people will respond. Even now here on the beach, with no one around, I am wondering who will read this and what will they think. Thomas would probably tell me not to send this blog update email. Such irony;) so much to learn.

But as I press send I do so hoping it will help us all think and decide to talk more than type, call more than text, meet more than tweet; and to read with compassion.

3 months

In three months I have been in 3 countries, visited 3 families.
According to this video, I could have learnt a new language:




See Fluent in 3 months

Whilst this is an enormous claim, it sounds like it could be like a 21st century L.A.M.P. We used LAMP to learn Spanish over a year, and I it really works because the goal is communication, so you start talking to real people about real things from day one.

Having said that I take my hat off to people we visited in Asia who are learning a language that has tones and doesn't use Roman script. To not only talk, but read and write that takes years - a real commitment from people who want to contribute long-term to a group of people.

Have you learnt a new language? Do you have any language hacking tips?

2 Blog or not 2 Blog

That is the question.

With facebook, people seem to care more.

Twitter is just broadcasting.

Has blogging become like sending a fax?

Whaddaythink?

Serendipity

OK. So I kinda think that I have had a few God organized encounters at this conference so far. I get off the plane Monday afternoon and miss the bus by about 10 minutes. Have to wait 1 1/2 hrs for next bus. I know you're gonna think: bumma. Well I did at first. Then I got a free subway pass from a new Japanese friend Kunio (he translates free bible software into Japanese). Next I bump into a friend of a friend from Latin America that I have never met before and we chat all the way to the conference venue and then somehow find our way on the subway to our hotel, which happens to be the same one! Yesterday afternoon I chat more in Spanish than English with a number of Latinos. Then today I bump into a former SIMer in Ecuador, but before my time, that now works in Mexico and also the YWAM director for Colombia - more Spanish conversation - yay! IN the elevator I talk with someone from Bangladesh that knows a MP working there. It's like everywhere I go I bump into someone who knows someone I know. Like 2deg of separation even works at a missionary conference with over 1000 delegates from 80 countries. Will heaven be like this? I hope so.